> While transforming in.xml with strange1.xsl will a singular "A", in.xml 
> transformed with strange2.xsl will reproduce the entire list of letters from 
> in.xml.

I get the same output with both stylesheet in saxon..

$ saxon.exe  in.xml in1.xsl
A
B
C
D
D
D
B
C
C
C
A
A
A

davidc@DCARLISLE /c/tmp
$ saxon.exe  in.xml in2.xsl
A
B
C
D
D
D
B
C
C
C
A
A
A

 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list